Ecovillage - Phoenix Asteroid

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Press release
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4...according to our Phil on Thu 06 Aug, 2009.

In this week are a handful of CDs on Japan's Quince label. They seem to specialise in all things shoegazey and over the years they have released some rather smashing things. Ecovillage is their latest oferring with their album called Phoenix Asteroid. The first thing that struck me about this is the incredibly full production. There's so much going on in there... It's ludicrously full. It reminds me a bit of Star by The Teenage Filmstars (totally under rated classic shoegazey MBV stylee album) and there's bits of State of Grace 'Camden era' and possibly the production is a wee bit like The Telescopes (Flying era) with some very slight Steve Mason esque vocals. Musically it's well poppy with nods to the above folks, The Cocteaus etc. I quite like bits of this... Mainly cos it reminds me of things I used to listen to about 15 years ago. Not sure if that's a good thing or not but there you go.

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Ecovillage is a two man Psychedelic/Shoegaze band from Sweden. They have both been involved with different bands over the years. In 2005 they went on an journey together which changed their view on music radically. In 2006 they formed the band Ecovillage...with this band everything fell into its proper place and just clicked from the beginning. They felt that Ecovillage was something special so they put everything else on hold and dedicated all their time to their music. Ecovillage's music has often been described as euphoric, melancholic, ethereal and very psychedelic. Members of the band: Emil Holmström and Peter Wikström. The album features Jonas Munk aka (Manual/Darla Records), Jakob Skott (Syntaks/Benbecula Records/Ghostly International) and Sherlie Matthews (Motown Records).

“When I first heard Ecovillage, I couldn’t believe my ears. Sometimes it sounds like radiofriendly boyband pop filtered through shoegaze aesthetics, other times it comes across as psychedelic music — not so much in sound as in effect. This really is Dream Pop in the original sense of the term, but still sounding strangely timeless. Somehow it’s the kind of personal sounds that could only originate deep in the flourishing Swedish nature, far away from hipsterness and fancy musical trends. Killer album!” — Jonas Munk/Manual

“Fantastic album! Can easily imagine this doing really well!” — Ulrich Schnauss

Tracklisting:

1. Small Bright Points
2. Arise From The Ashes
3. Lost In The Tides Of Time
4. Here And Now
5. The Sun Will Shine On
6. Dawn Was Brand New
7. Horizons And Beyond
8. Invitation
9. When Souls Collide
10. The Key
11. Phoenix Asteroid
12. Mustard Seed

5...according to Eric.

Really fantastic stuff, its like going out in the woods stoned on mushrooms and all the animals, trees. bugs start to sing and play for you, this might actally be the most trippy album ever made!

5...according to Eric.

Really fantastic stuff, its like going out in the woods stoned on mushrooms and all the animals, trees. bugs start to sing and play for you, this might actally be the most trippy album ever made!

Rating: 5 out of 5

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!